We often romanticize about the birth of Christ and the Christmas story. We reflect on the angels, the most pure virgin, the obedience of Joseph and the lowly manger. We quickly forget that God took the form of flesh during a time of unrest and persecution. His arrival was not met with parades and shouts of jubilation throughout the world. Parts of the world reacted with evil as we heard in the Gospel reading this morning. (Mathew 2:13-23) His birth story sounds familiar as we remember the birth of Moses and the wicked orders given by Pharaoh from the time before the great Exodus: “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” (Exodus 1:15-22)
Listen to the horrific recount of today’s Gospel story from our dear saint, Nikolai Velimirovich: This frightening command of the king was carried out to the letter. His soldiers beheaded some of the children with swords, smashed others against stones, trampled others underfoot, and strangled others with their hands. And the cries and wails of the mothers rose to heaven, lamentation, and bitter weeping; “Rachel weeping for her children” (Jeremiah 31:15, Matthew 2:18), as had been prophesied.
Herod asked the High Priest Zacharias about his son John, so that he might kill him, since he naturally thought that John was the new king. As Zacharias did not turn John over, he was slain in the Temple by order of Herod. After murdering the children of Bethlehem, Herod turned against the Jewish elders who had revealed to him where the Messiah would be born. He then killed Hyrcanes, the high priest, and the seventy elders of the Sanhedrin. Thus, they who had agreed with Herod that the new Child-king must be killed came to an evil end. After that, Herod murdered his brother, sister, wife and three sons.
Finally, God’s punishment came to him: he began to tremble, his legs became swollen, the lower part of his body became putrid, and worms came out of the sores; his nose became blocked and an unbearable stench emanated from him. Before his last breath, he remembered that there were many captive Jews in prison, and he ordered that they all be killed so that they would not rejoice in his death. Thus, this terrible ruler gave up his inhuman soul and handed it over to the devil for eternal possession. (Saint Nikolai Velimirovich)
Listen now to these words, God does not fear evil, it is the other way around. That is why Herod and Pharaoh acted as they did. That is why we today struggle so much to be a Christian nation. Evil reacts to separate us from God, from our salvation. Evil loves power and money but our Lord was born into the flesh poor and humble. It is easy for good people too lose their vision in this walk of life as evil distorts truth, folks identifying as Christians find themselves supporting wickedness or perhaps the lesser choice of evils, abandoning the laws given to mankind by our Creator. Our actions are causing us to react with evil choices!
After the Nativity, 14,000 innocent children lost their lives as evil reacted to the birth of Goodness. Is it a wonder that we here today struggle along the narrow path with such cunning wickedness always seeking opportunities to cast darkness over our attempts to climb the ladder of divine ascent? Is it a wonder that we still today believe our understanding or our translation of what a Christian is suppose to be instead of submitting to the Almighty’s light of perfection and judgment. Sin is sin, and we are all in need of a Savior and the birth of Goodness in every corner of our lives! Christ is BORN! Will you glorify Him?
